LOVE for MR. MOM

Jesse is a remarkable man.  A good mate, a fabulous father and a great Mr. Mom.

When Deacon was born, they decided to have Jesse be the stay home Dad.  I was invited back when Braeden started Kindergarten.  Jesse doesn't drive and I was concerned about what would happen if he got sick or hurt at school.  The elementary school is about 2 miles away ... all uphill on the way there.  For the first few months, Momma would drop B at school before she went to work.  Jesse and baby Deacon would walk to pick him up at school and they would all walk home.  And then the cold rainy season began.  They decided to let him try taking the school bus.  He LOVES riding the bus.

Jesse does everything around the house.  The never-ending laundry.  It took YEARS for him to allow me to FOLD the clothes.  He hangs most everything except towels, pajamas, sox, jeans and underwear.  I cleaned out both dressers and labeled the drawers.  Now I can help by putting their clothes away and Braeden can find his own outfit and get dressed.  Deacon can almost do it all on his own.

Mr. Mom does 90% of the cooking!  And very healthy.  We go through 3 lbs of broccoli a week.  And carrots by the bushel.  Mr. B loves fruit but Deacon is down to just liking apples right now. We've had sweet potato pasta with herbed cream sauce.  Shepherd's pie.  Spaghetti marinara.  Breakfast for dinner.  Best fried rice ever. 

For years Mr. Mom would clean up the toys in the living room several times during the day.  Now the boys are trained to pick up Legos if they want to play soldiers.  Pick up the soldiers when they want to do art projects.  And so on.  I didn't think Deacon would EVER cooperate with picking up ... he was always "too tired to help, Dadda" or angry that he had to stop playing and have a meal.  I wasn't sure I'd live through his noisy flailing temper tantrums.  And then he turned 3.  Life is so much easier now.

Often the boys have a friend over.  Whenever it was clean up time, the friend would "have to go home".  Our boys were not happy.  Dadda stepped in and would ask the young chap what time he had to be home ... then would arrange clean up time ten minutes before!

Jesse sweeps the hardwood floors EVERY day at least once.  Vacuums every evening.  He does the dishes (very picky about loading).  I rinse mine and put them IN the dishwasher but he rearranges them every single time.

He prepares their beds each night while the boys are bathing, or reading with me, finding their favorite stuffed animals to put on their pillow.  Not always an easy task as Deacon learned early on to hide his Lambie which would stall bedtime for 15 minutes while the parents looked frantically (sometimes in the fridge, under furniture, behind books in the bookcase and once in the freezer!)  Gramma performed major surgery on Lambie and inserted a Tile that we can ring from our phones.

He lights candles every day, dims the lights in order to calm them down at dinner time.  While they eat, he goes outside to sweep the patio, blow the leaves, get the mail, whatever.  Empties the trash cans and does the recycling.  (He's training Mr. B to empty the recycle container into the proper bins).

They get plenty of physical exercise every day, rain or shine.  Ride bikes or scooters or go for a hike.  Walk to a favorite fishing spot even though they've only caught one fish.  When  conditions are really bad, he sets up an obstacle course in the clubhouse or they have a major Nerf gun battle.

The ultimate was just recent.  I visit some neighbors about once a week for wine and snacks and politics and gossip and ideas to change the world.  When I came home at 8pm, he had changed the sheets, made my bed, lit a candle and put a mint on my pillow.

My life is wonderful.